By Wiley Martin, the only surviving
one known to have been drawn during Travis's lifetime. The accuracy
of the likeness has been
questioned.

William Barret Travis (August 9, 1809 – March 6, 1836) was a
19th century American lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, he was a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Texian Army, and commanded the Republic of Texas
forces and died at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution
from the Republic of Mexico.

He
was born in Saluda County, South Carolina, to Mark and Jemima Travis in
1809; records differ as to whether his date of birth was the first or
ninth of August, but the Travis family Bible indicates that he was born on
the ninth.

At the age of nine, he
moved with his family to the town of Sparta in Conecuh County, Alabama,
where he received much of his education. He later enrolled in a school in
nearby Claiborne, where he eventually worked as an assistant
teacher.

Travis then became an
attorney and, at age 19, married one of his former students, 16-year-old
Rosanna Cato (1812-1848), on October 26, 1828. The couple stayed in
Claiborne and had a son, Charles Edward, in 1829. Travis began publication
of a newspaper that same year, the Claiborne Herald. He became a Mason,
joining the Alabama Lodge No.3 - Free and Accepted Masons, and later
joined the Alabama militia as adjutant of the Twenty-sixth Regiment,
Eighth Brigade, Fourth Division.

For unknown reasons, Travis fled Alabama in early 1831 to start
over in Texas, leaving behind his wife, son, and unborn daughter. Travis
and Rosanna were officially divorced by the Marion County courts on
January 9, 1836 by Act no. 115. Their son was placed with Travis's friend,
David Ayres, so that he would be closer to his father.

Rosanna married Samuel G. Cloud
in Monroeville, Alabama, on February 14, 1836; she subsequently married
David Y. Portis in 1843 in Texas (they both died of Yellow Fever in
1848).

In May 1831, upon his arrival in
Mexican Texas, a part of Northern Mexico at the time, Travis purchased
land from Stephen F. Austin and started a law practice in Anahuac. He
played a role in the growing friction between American settlers and the
Mexican government and was one of the leaders of the "War Party," a group
of militants opposed to Mexican rule. He became a pivotal figure in the
Anahuac Disturbances, which helped to precipitate the
war.

The Texas Revolution started
in October 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales. Travis took a small part in the
Siege of Bexar in November. On 19 December, Travis was commissioned as a
lieutenant colonel of the Legion of Cavalry and became the chief
recruiting officer for the Texan army. This force was to consist of 384
men and officers, divided into six companies. Despite his rank, Travis now
had to actively recruit the men who were to serve under his command, and
he had a hard time finding willing colonists to enlist. "Volunteers can no
longer be had or relied upon ...," he wrote to acting governor Henry
Smith.

Smith ordered Travis to
raise a company to reinforce the Texians at the Alamo Mission in San
Antonio. Travis seriously considered disobeying his orders, writing to
Smith: "I am willing, nay anxious, to go to the defense of Bexar, but sir,
I am unwilling to risk my reputation ... by going off into the enemy's
country with such little means, so few men, and with them so badly
equipped."

On February 3 Travis arrived in
San Antonio with eighteen men as reinforcements. On 12 February, as the
next highest ranking officer, Travis became the official commander of the
Alamo garrison. He took command of the regular soldiers from Col. James C.
Neill, of the Texian army. Neill had to leave to care for his ill family,
but he promised to be back in twenty days. James Bowie (1795-1836) would
command the volunteers as Travis commanded the
regulars.

The Mexican army, under
dictator/General Antonio López de Santa Anna, began its attack on the
mission on February 23, 1836. In a brief letter to the alcade of Gonzales,
Andrew Ponton, Travis wrote:

"The enemy in large force is in sight... We want men and
provisions ... Send them to us. We have 150 men & are determined to
defend the Alamo to the last."

On February 24, 1836, during Santa Anna's siege of the Alamo,
Travis wrote a letter addressed "To the People of Texas and All Americans
in the World" (a plaque with this written letter is placed in front of the
Alamo):

Fellow citizens and
compatriots;I am besieged, by a
thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a
continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man.
The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison
are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the
demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the
walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name
of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character,
to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving
reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand
in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to
sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never
forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or
Death. William Barret
TravisLt. Col.
Comdt.P.S. The Lord is on our side.
When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have
since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20
or 30 head of Beeves. Travis

He gave this letter
to courier Albert Martin to deliver. The envelope that contained the
letter was labeled "Victory or Death". The letter, while unable to bring
aid to the garrison at the Alamo, did much to motivate the Texan army and
helped to rally support in America for the cause of Texan independence. It
also cemented Travis's status as a hero of the Texas
Revolution.

In a letter to the
Texas Convention on March 3: "...yet I am determined to perish in the
defence of this place, and my bones shall reproach my country for her
neglect."

In Travis' last letter out of the
Alamo, March 3 to David Ayres:

"Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may
make him a splendid fortune; but if the country should be lost, and I
should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is
the son of a man who died for his country."

There is a legend that, one to three days before the
final Mexican assault, Travis gathered all of the Alamo's defenders in the
main plaza of the fort. Announcing that reinforcements would not be
forthcoming, Travis unsheathed his sword and drew a line in the dirt. He
then told those men who were willing to stay and die with him to cross the
line; those who wanted to leave could do so without shame. Most of the
Alamo's defenders subsequently crossed the line, leaving only two men
behind. One soldier, Bowie, was confined to a cot with typhoid, but asked
to be carried across the line. The other was a French veteran of the
Napoleonic Wars named Moses Rose. Rose, who later declared, "By God, I
wasn't ready to die," scaled a wall that night and escaped, thus
preserving the story of Travis's line in the sand. This account was told
by Rose to numerous people later in his life.

On March 6, 1836, following a thirteen-day siege,
Travis, Bowie, David Crockett, and James Bonham were killed in a predawn
attack along with about 188-250 other defenders during the Battle of the
Alamo. The Mexicans overran the fort, surrounded it, used ladders to climb
over the walls and broke down the fort's defenses. There are reports that
Travis died early in the assault, of a single gunshot wound to the
forehead while defending the north wall. Joe, a freed former slave to
Travis, who was present during the final assault as a noncombatant, stated
afterward that he saw Travis stand on the wall and fire into the
attackers. He then saw Travis shot, then saw Travis kill a Mexican soldier
climbing over the wall from a ladder, with Travis falling immediately
afterward. This is the only dependable account of Travis'
death.

When Santa Anna came into
the fort he asked the alcalde of San Antonio, Francisco A. Ruiz, to
identify the bodies of the rebel leaders to him. Ruiz later said that the
body of Travis was found on a gun carriage on the north wall. Within a few
hours of the final gunshots being fired, Santa Anna ordered a company of
dragoons to gather wood and burn all the Texians' bodies. By five o'clock
that evening, the bodies of Travis, Crockett, Bowie and Bonham were burned
along with the other defenders.

What is not disputed about the
Battle of the Alamo, is that by March 3, 1836, Col. Travis understood the
situation his garrison faced, and it was less than bleak, but in fact
hopeless. It is alleged that he called the troops of his garrison together
either that day or on March 4, 1836, and told them "We must die. Our
business is not to make a fruitless effort to save our lives, but to
choose the manner of our death." With that, it is alleged he made a sweep
with his sword, and drew a line in the sand, asking all who would stay to
cross it, and those not willing should not cross. Only Moses Rose, a
French born former soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée, did not
cross. Rose has since been known as the Coward of the Alamo.

It is a fact that Moses Rose, by
his own later accounts, was the only soldier that chose to depart, which
he did by sneaking through Mexican lines in the late night hours of March
5, 1836. Allegedly, it was Rose who first said that Travis drew the line.
Susannah Dickinson, widow of Alamo defender Capt. Almaron Dickinson, and
who was present during the siege and battle, confirmed that this did
happen. But, no reliable written accounts support this. Whether or not
Travis actually did draw the line in the sand is still disputed. However,
what is known, by Rose's own accounts, is that Travis did give the members
of the garrison a choice as to who would stay and who would go, and, by
Rose's own accounts, only Rose chose the latter.

Travis's children

Charles Edward Travis (1829-1860)
was raised by his mother and her second husband. He won a seat in the
Texas legislature in 1853. In 1855, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a
Captain in a Cavalry Regiment (which was later renamed the 5th Cavalry
Regiment (United States) commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston), but was
discharged in May 1856 for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman"
following an allegation that he had cheated at cards.

He appealed the decision (to no
avail), and then turned his attention to studying law, earning a law
degree from Baylor University in 1859. He died of consumption
(tuberculosis) within a year, and is buried beside his sister.

Susan Isabella Travis was born in
1831 after Travis had departed for Texas. Although her paternity has been
questioned by some, Travis did name her as his daughter in his will. In
1850 she married a planter from Chapell Hill, and they had one
daughter.

William B. Travis. This
sketch by Wiley Martin is the only surviving one known to have been drawn
during Travis's lifetime, although the accuracy of the likeness has been
questioned.

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